Fact Check: Did Virat Kohli ask Afghanistan's captain to choose bowling?
A video of India-Afghanistan toss is widely being shared on social media. Users claim that Virat Kohli had asked Afghanistan’s captain Mohammed Nabi to
By Tejal Sinha Published on 6 Nov 2021 3:42 AM GMT
Hyderabad: A video of India-Afghanistan toss is widely being shared on social media. Users claim that Virat Kohli had asked Afghanistan's captain Mohammed Nabi to choose bowling after winning the toss.
Social media users claim that it was Kohli who had advised Afghanistan to choose to field.
"Just watch the video and listen carefully Kohli is telling Nabi, you are gonna bowl first," reads the caption of the viral post.
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Fact Check
The claim is False.
NewsMeter firstly performed a keyword search which led us to a report by Times Now News on November 05, 2021, related to the toss controversy. India won by 66 runs against Afghanistan after losing T20 matches to Pakistan and New Zealand. The team noticed that the report had used a screengrab from the viral video.
"Tweets alleging the India-Afghanistan match in T20 World Cup 2021 being 'fixed' flooded the internet after Virat Kohli and Co. secured a thumping 8-wicket win over Mohammad Nabi's men in the contest. While India's victory gave them a glimmer of hope when it comes to semi-finals qualification, the toss video from the match went viral because of a conspiracy theory. In the video, Afghanistan skipper Mohammad Nabi could be heard telling his counterpart Virat Kohli that he is going to bowl first. Nabi then confirmed the same on the mic as well. Some people, however, found the incident fishy and started questioning why Nabi told Kohli his decision beforehand," the report said.
The report had quoted Gower, who had sought an opinion from other panelists including former Pakistan pacer Umar Gul and Rashid Latif.
"When a toss takes place between two captains, one captain tells the other what he wants to do," explained Latif. "So Nabi told Kohli 'we will bowl first'. However, later you have to say the same thing officially, so he repeated it. Latif assured the doubters that there was 'nothing fishy' with the incident but admitted being surprised over the reaction of some of the fans," the report said.
The team found a similar report on the controversial toss on the 'Geo News' website on November 4, 2021.
According to the WION report, even after India gave an amazing performance in the match with Afghanistan, some users have accused the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) of fixing the match. The report was headlined, `David Gower, Rashid Latif shun claims after India-Afg toss controversy leads to fixing conspiracy at T20 WC'.
The Fact Check team also found the complete video of this match on Disney + Hotstar. At 2:07 minutes, the team found the viral clip Mohammed Nabi said 'heads'. The umpire then announced Afghanistan has won the toss and Nabi informs Kohli that they would be bowl first. Nowhere in the clip had Kohli said anything else.
https://www.hotstar.com/in/
It is therefore evident that the claim is False. Neither did Kohli advise Mohammed Nabi to choose bowling nor was the match fixed.
